The Whole Wide World of Clinical Trials

Kelly is a board-certified pediatric nurse practitioner and certified pediatric hematology oncology nurse. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2000 at the University of Michigan and her Master of Science in Nursing in 2003 at Case Western Reserve University. Kelly has practiced for most of her nursing career at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, OH, holding both pediatric oncology nurse practitioner inpatient and outpatient roles, including a key role in the program development and coordination of both the Multidisciplinary Survivorship and Neuro-Oncology Programs. 

She joined The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) in 2018 and is currently the manager of the Clinical Trial Support Center. She leads a team of nurse navigators to help blood cancer patients and their families identify clinical trials and overcome barriers to enrollment.

Anita completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard College, graduating cum laude. She proceeded to Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, where she received her Doctor of Medicine and was appointed to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Anita then served as an intern and resident in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and completed a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at MSKCC. 

She joined the faculty of MSKCC in 2014, where she is the Section Head for the Mantle Cell Lymphoma research program. Anita’s clinical interests involve the care of patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma with a special interest in mantle cell lymphoma. Her research interests include the clinical applications of minimal residual disease testing in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas and the development of novel treatment paradigms in mantle cell lymphoma, including biologically targeted therapeutics. She serves as a principal investigator for multiple clinical trials.

Megan-Claire builds relationships with non-profit patient advocacy groups to engage their expertise in virtual patient education programs and amplify their resources to support the GRYT Health community. She is an accomplished media and marketing professional with over 15 years of experience in these industries. After being diagnosed with Stage IIA invasive lobular breast cancer in 2015, she became heavily involved in patient advocacy and research post-treatment. She is a powerful communicator, public speaker, researcher, published writer, and blogger of Life on the Cancer Train. 

In her spare time, she is a consumer reviewer for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, a contributing writer for WebMD, and host of The Megan-Claire Show for Ancora.ai. Megan-Claire’s work has been featured in the United States’ press, including The New York Times and People Magazine. She has also been featured by many patient advocacy organizations. She grew up in Macon, GA, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a minor in Theatre from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.

Darcy holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota Medical School. She has more than 15 years of combined experience in molecular and clinical pharmacology and patient experience research. Darcy is passionate about working with the cancer community to make research more understood and accessible, helping patients and caregivers use their voice to improve future care and resources and understand their impact, and connecting research participants to information and resources. She lives in Colorado and enjoys exploring the outdoors with her two Labrador retrievers.